Gentoo-like "base" system install for slackware 9.1
 

I'm posting this to share with anyone who might really like the gentoo base install setup, but does not like the compile time. I'm not sure if this is important enough to submit in the howto's, so I'll just start it as a thread and see where it leads. Thanks to 320mb for the link and to Gnashley for the document.

A Brief History
I first started with linux just over two years ago, when I bought SuSe 7.3 from Best Buy. I had an extra computer and wanted to see what this linux thing was about. Once thing led to another, and I switched to slackware. Me with my newbie self couldn't keep up with compiling programs from source and removing them and all of that. I wanted/needed package management. So I switched to Mandrake 9.something. After experiencing a couple weeks of rpms, I decided to go with gentoo. I've been solid on gentoo for over a year now, but am growing weary of ebuild time (it would be different if I had an AMD64 but if wishes were horses...). I've begun looking at different well-supported options. I tried arch linux, but it screwed up my grub on my main machine, and I couldn't get the network to set up properly. So I thought I would give slackware another shot--especially with the package to SWareT.

Purpose
Because I spent time working with gentoo, and did several gentoo installations, I came to really like the base install--what you need to run a system with nothing else.

The Problem
If I installed just the /a folder from the slackware cd, there were no development tools, network tools, and things were all around...not set up for workability. If I installed the entire /n folder, I'd get all sorts of server and mail stuff that I don't want. I want a base system with network ready to go so I cant get what I want installed, and nothing else.

The Solution
I posted a question about anyone having information on the minimum necessary packages. 320mb posted this link written by Gnashley. I have taken their advice, modified it just a tad, and posted the results here for anyone else that's interested. [Note: This is taken from gnashley's list, with some of my suggestions. If you want the orginial list, visit Gnashley's site.]

The packages
/a
aaa_base, bash, bin, bzip2, cpio, cxxlibs, devs, devfsd, elflibs, elvis, etc, fileutils, findutils, floppy, gawk, glibc-solibs, grep, gzip, kbd, kernel-modules, less, lilo, modutils, openssl-solibs, pkgtools, procps, reiserfsprogs, sh-utils, shadow, slocate, sysklogd, sysvinit, tar, textutils, umsdosprogs, util-linux
(There are some more packages that seem to be required by the installation--I left those as is.)

/ap
bc, man, man-pages, sudo

/d
I installed everything in this folder so that I would have minimal problems installnig packages.

/l
gdk-pixbuf, glib-1.2.1, gtk+-1.2.1, lesstif, libpng, libungif, libxml2, zlib

/n
dhcpd, inetd, links, pidentd, ppp, tcpip, wget


Other packages:
Nano, Swaret

I installed nano because, while trying to learn vi, I need something simple and user friendly. I used swaret to install and take care of dependencies for x and kde, as well as to upgrade the system to current.


If anyone has any suggestion or ideas, please let me know. If I don't hear anything, then I guess I'll know I'm a freak of nature and have at least written it down for reference in the future.

'man' and man pages are in the ap/ directory so add those to the list. You won't need the dhcp packages, only the dhcpcd, unless you plan on running a dhcp server; in that case you need dhcp, not dhcpcd.

Here's a list of packages I have installed in an attempt to do a similar thing. I didn't get anything from the l/ directory because any that I need will come from Dropline GNOME.

aaa_base-9.1.0-noarch-1
aaa_elflibs-9.1.2-i486-2
alsa-driver-1.0.3-i486-1
alsa-lib-1.0.3-i486-1
alsa-oss-1.0.3-i486-1
alsa-utils-1.0.3-i486-1
apmd-3.0.2-i386-1
autoconf-2.59-noarch-1
automake-1.8.3-noarch-1
bash-2.05b-i486-3
bc-1.06-i386-2 (needed for SWareT)
bin-9.0.0-i486-1
binutils-2.15.90.0.1.1-i486-1
bison-1.875-i386-1
bzip2-1.0.2-i486-5
ccache-2.3-i486-1
cdparanoia-IIIalpha9.8-i386-1
cdrdao-1.1.8-i486-1
cdrtools-2.00.3-i486-1
checkinstall-1.5.3-i386-1 (installed with SWareT. Good for compiling)
coreutils-5.2.1-i486-1
cups-1.1.20-i486-1
cvs-1.11.11-i486-1
cxxlibs-5.1.1-i486-1
dcron-2.3.3-i386-4
devfsd-1.3.25-i386-2
devs-2.3.1-noarch-19
dhcpcd-1.3.22pl4-i386-1
diffutils-2.8.1-i386-1
e2fsprogs-1.34-i486-1
elvis-2.2_0-i486-2
espgs-7.07.1-i486-2
etc-5.1-noarch-7
findutils-4.1.7-i386-1
flex-2.5.4a-i486-2
floppy-5.4-i386-3
gawk-3.1.3-i486-1
gcc-3.3.3-i486-1
gcc-g++-3.3.3-i486-1
gimp-print-4.2.6-i486-1
glib-1.2.10-i386-2
glibc-2.3.2-i486-5
glibc-solibs-2.3.2-i486-5
glibc-zoneinfo-2.3.2-noarch-5
gnu-gs-fonts-6.0-noarch-1
gpm-1.19.6-i486-6 (Allows 'links -g' but will drop after Dropline GNOME)
grep-2.5-i386-2
groff-1.17.2-i386-3
gzip-1.3.3-i386-2
hdparm-5.4-i486-1
hotplug-2004_01_05-noarch-1
hpijs-1.5-i486-2
infozip-5.50-i486-2
iptables-1.2.9-i486-1
j2sdk-1_4_2_04-i586-2
kernel-headers-2.4.25-i386-2
kernel-ide-2.4.25-i486-2
kernel-modules-2.4.25-i486-2
kernel-source-2.4.25-noarch-2
less-382-i486-1
libtool-1.5.2-i486-1
libusb-0.1.8-i486-1
lilo-22.5.7.2-i386-1
links-2.1pre13-i486-1
logrotate-3.6.8-i486-1
m4-1.4-i386-2
make-3.80-i386-1
man-1.5m2-i486-1
man-pages-1.60-noarch-1
module-init-tools-3.0-i486-1
nail-10.7-i486-1 (used for 'swaret --extra -u mail'
ncurses-5.4-i486-2
openssh-3.8p1-i486-1
openssl-0.9.7d-i486-1
openssl-solibs-0.9.7d-i486-1
pciutils-2.1.11-i486-5
perl-5.8.3-i486-1
pkgconfig-0.15.0-i486-1
pkgtools-9.1.3-i486-1
portmap-5.0-i486-1
procps-2.0.18-i486-1
python-2.3.3-i486-1
reiserfsprogs-3.6.11-i486-1
sed-4.0.9-i486-1
shadow-4.0.3-i486-8
slocate-2.7-i486-2
swaret-1.6.2-noarch-1 (:) )
sysklogd-1.4.1-i486-8
syslinux-2.08-i486-1
sysvinit-2.84-i486-37
taglib-1.0-i486-1
tar-1.13.25-i386-1
tcpip-0.17-i486-26
texinfo-4.6-i486-1
umsdos-progs-1.13-i386-1
usbutils-0.11-i486-2
util-linux-2.12-i486-1
wget-1.9.1-i486-1

So far this setup works. Compiling should work as I recompiled the stock kernel for i686. I can print and do other simplerer things. There are probably a few packages I could prune; I'll have to look into it.

what does texinfo do?

From the Slackware Package Browser:
texinfo: texinfo (GNU software documentation system)
texinfo:
texinfo: 'Texinfo' is a documentation system that uses a single source file to
texinfo: produce both on-line information and printed output. Using Texinfo,
texinfo: you can create a printed document with the normal features of a book,
texinfo: including chapters, sections, cross references, and indices. From the
texinfo: same Texinfo source file, you can create a menu-driven, on-line Info
texinfo: file with nodes, menus, cross references, and indices.
texinfo:
texinfo: This package is needed to read the documentation files in /usr/info.
texinfo:

Some utilities prefer to use info docs instead of man pages. This way I can read them. :)

To be able to view man pages you need :
man
man-pages
groff
bzip2

thanks to all for your interest and enthusiasm with my document. I'm gonna have a better look at your lists, maybe post them with the document as examples.
I have another version of that webpage, but have been busy developing a self-installing slack-based distro called Amigo (not Phoenix), so I haven't had time to finish.